Episens, the new wheat division of the InVivo group, unveils its strategic ambitions

One year after acquiring the Soufflet group, the InVivo group is now one of the leading European agri-food cooperative groups. A key figure in food sovereignty, InVivo operates along the entire value chain, from farm to fork, via its major strategic business lines, including its newly formed wheat division, the name of which was revealed today at Sirha: Episens.

Episens brings together three complementary activities: milling, ingredients and bakery/viennoiserie/pastry (BVP), with an ambition to enhance the wheat value chain with a sustainable industry approach, and to double its turnover in five years.

Episens: A value-added 'chain' from grain to finished product

Episens fulfils the transformation plan implemented within the wheat division by bringing various activities together: 

• Milling with Moulins Soufflet
• Ingredients (technical and flavouring solutions for milling, and artisan and industrial baking), with AIT Ingredients and Soufflet Biotechnologies
• Bakery/viennoiserie/pastry (BVP) and snacking with Neuhauser.

This divisional structure dedicated solely to the wheat sector makes it possible to operate throughout the entire processing chain and to control upstream and downstream production tools. In this way, we can address the new expectations of customers as much as we can, whether they are artisan or industrial bakers, work in distribution or are end consumers. Episens makes the unique knowledge of InVivo's wheat division more tangible, with its value-added 'chain' from grain to the finished product.

Episens: a major entity in InVivo's agri-food division

Present in France and internationally, Episens brings together 24 production sites and 2400 employees, with a total turnover of €892 million in 2021–2022, split as follows: 

• Moulins Soufflet — turnover: €432 million : 8 mills in France and 1 mill in Belgium — 480 employees (including 80 in Belgium).
• AIT Ingredients — turnover: €87 million: 3 industrial sites and 1 bakery in France — 278 employees (including 89 international employees).
• Neuhauser — turnover: €373 million (19% of which is generated in Portugal).

11 production sites in France and 1 in Portugal — 1611 employees (including 289 in Portugal). 
 

Episens has three main strategic objectives: 

• To strengthen its position as a leading player in industrial baking and milling with Neuhauser and Moulins Soufflet.
• To support the agri-food transition with a sustainable offer that maximises the wheat value chain. 
• To structure and develop short supply chains to improve the quality and traceability of artisan and high-end products. 

"With a very favourable market environment today, we want to relaunch Neuhauser's BVP activity and make Moulins Soufflet the leading miller in France and Belgium. AIT, our ingredients division, also aims to become a key player in this highly international market. For the past few months, we have been implementing a structured growth plan for these three activities and aim to double the turnover for Episens over the next five years, bringing it to nearly €2 billion," said Thierry Blandinières, CEO of InVivo.

"Our approach to the business makes sense and we are now putting the customer experience at the heart of our strategy. Our commitments and our ability to adapt to demand must make us essential to our customers and partners. Furthermore, our position as a leader in sustainable chains and as a pioneer in low-carbon offers makes our offer wholly unique. Nowadays, customers want to know how the product was prepared, what ingredients were used and where they came from. We have been able to incorporate this requirement for transparency from field to plate with our 'Sowing Good Sense' CSR approach for sustainable chains", said François-Xavier Quarez, CEO of Episens.

Affirmed CSR commitments to support "Sowing Good Sense" sustainable chains 

The corporate purpose of Episens is to: "Pass on the best that wheat has to offer and our industry knowledge for tasty, healthy food and regenerated land." To achieve this, Episens relies on "Sowing Good Sense", an approach that is at the heart of the InVivo group's ambitions to act in favour of the agricultural transition, which consists of developing sustainable value-creating chains through agricultural practices that promote biodiversity, soil fertility and a reduced carbon footprint. "Sowing Good Sense" thus contributes to the fight against climate change. "Sowing Good Sense" is a collective approach that initially started with wheat and was rolled out with 2900 farmers. It supports the competitiveness of professions, by connecting downstream expectations with upstream agricultural practices. 

Wheat production from "Sowing Good Sense" sustainable chains is experiencing a real boom in initial transformation activities such as milling and ingredients and secondary transformation activities involving artisan and industrial bakeries. In 2022, "Sowing Good Sense" brought together 13 sustainable wheat chains, all with demanding, evolving and controlled specifications. These chains materialise downstream, for example, with Moulins Soufflet, which over the 2021–2022 fiscal year sold more than 300,000 tonnes of "Sowing Good Sense" flour. This included "Label Rouge" (red label) flour from the wheat excellence chain, Baguépi Farine Responsable (responsible flour) aimed at customers who are artisan bakers, and even flours supplied to industrial customers. 

Episens aims to offer the first carbon-free baguette 

Driven by its desire to reposition the offer to improve the customer experience, enhance the wheat value chain and the sector through a CSR approach, and to take advantage of the collaborations with businesses in the InVivo group, Episens now has all the assets to offer a baguette with added value — a baguette produced using low-carbon wheat.

"Faced with a double challenge of increasing production volumes to feed 10 billion people while achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, agriculture has a major role to play. We are now able to make our agriculture more productive and more virtuous, provided that we succeed in rolling out our initiatives on a large scale. While continuing to fulfil its fundamental mission of feeding people, agriculture must, through its impact on and influence over ecological systems, allow for the establishment of virtuous carbon chains," said Thierry Blandinières, CEO of InVivo.

Guy Martin and Jean-François Fayolle, Episens ambassadors 

Episens is surrounded by renowned professionals, who are truly symbolic of French excellence in each of their fields. For Guy Martin, this is gastronomy, while for Jean-François Fayolle, this is an exceptional level of baking.

Ambassadors of our products and our brands, they will also be asked to share their expertise when researching and developing new products and recipes, as well as to support sales teams in the promotion of products. 

 

 

 

Moulins Soufflet aims to become the leading miller in France and Belgium

Moulins Soufflet is one of the top European millers with eight mills in France and one in Belgium. The company, an expert in wheat selection, formulates and markets tailor-made, traceable flours from sustainable chains for its customers in the artisan bakery, distribution and agri-food manufacturing sectors, both in France and for export.

Episens now aims to transform Moulins Soufflet so that the company is resilient and oriented towards growth.

Its transformation levers are: 

• To strengthen the support for artisan bakers by further accelerating innovation and responsible chains, with product offers such as Baguépi Farine Responsable (Baguépi responsible flour) and Mélior.

• To invest in all mills to modernise production tools, such as the Corbeil mill, and to produce high-quality flours.

• To strengthen the supply chain to achieve one of the best service rates on the market.

The Baguépi Farine Responsable and Mélior ranges 

With its brand Baguépi Farine Responsable, Moulins Soufflet is meeting the consumer expectations by supporting artisan bakers in developing an excellent level of knowledge as part of the sustainability approach to the "Sowing Good Sense" wheat sectors. 

Baguépi Farine Responsable consists of a range of 10 flours which are fully sourced from sustainable, high-quality chains (responsible, organic and excellence). Each of the flours are made from100% French wheat, are derived from good agricultural practices and are not treated after harvest. Furthermore, their traceability is guaranteed from field to bakery.

Mélior supports artisan bakers with a range of "special flours" and ready-to-use wheat-flour based preparations from a 100% French sustainable chain. The range follows a committed approach, featuring Clean Label recipes without artificial flavourings or acidifiers, emulsifiers, thickeners or stabilisers.

Création Snacking, the new Mélior range unveiled at Sirha

French people are increasingly concerned about their diet and are looking for healthy products. 

To respond to these new consumption habits as well as the rise in meals consumed away from home, Mélior allows artisan bakers to offer a previously unseen snack offer which includes sandwiches and balanced recipes (Nutri-Score A or B), developed with help from a nutritionist.

A real turnkey concept, the range is accompanied by ideas for creating sandwiches, as well as savoury tarts, buns, puff pastry, savoury waffles and more.

 

 

 

AIT Ingredients wants to become a major player in the international ingredients market

AIT Ingredients is a manufacturer of tailor-made ingredient solutions for milling. Committed to sustainable chains, it comes up with technical solutions (enhancers and correctors, enzymes) and creative solutions (leavens, mixes, cereal ingredients) for milling, the bread-making industry and distribution. 

As part of the restructuring of the wheat division, AIT Ingredients wants to boost its growth to a level higher than that of the ingredients market, in other words, a growth rate of 5% per year.

Its development levers are: 

• To invest in priority geographic markets at an international level. AIT Ingredients is already established in Europe, Latin America, Africa and South-East Asia.
• To prioritise certain product offerings, such as cereal ingredients, responding to both nutritional trends and the trend for natural products, as well as tailored Clean Label ingredient solutions that allow industrial customers to simplify their formulas.
• To advance responsible sourcing with the development of positive-impact products from "Sowing Good Sense" sustainable chains.
• To act as a consolidator in the market by seizing opportunities for external growth.

 

SWITCH'EASY, a new concept by AIT Ingredients to offset the rise in the cost of raw materials

Raw materials such as wheat, gluten, emulsifiers, eggs and many others are being affected by price inflation and lack of availability. For example, the price of gluten has increased by more than 120% in the last 12 months.

This is why AIT Ingredients has developed the SWITCH'EASY concept, which brings together all AIT Ingredients solutions to partially or fully replace certain raw materials, such as gluten, eggs or emulsifiers. These solutions reduce production costs, ensure consistent production and avoid supply issues. 

 

 

 

 

Neuhauser accelerates its growth to rise into a leading position

Neuhauser has begun 2023 with a return to growth and will continue to roll out the recovery plan initiated last May. The aim of this is to become the leader in bakery and industrial pastry in a growing market which is still not at full capacity.

"Given the highly favourable market environment at present and Neuhauser's potential regarding production capacity, we have been implementing a growth plan for several months, structured around a reorganisation of activities and making full use of Neuhauser's production capacity. Growth is already happening as we plan to reopen the second Folschviller production site in Moselle next June. This will be an important step to further increase the company's profitability and reach a turnover of €600 million," said Thierry Blandinières, CEO of InVivo.

"Improving the level of results is an essential requirement for ensuring that Neuhauser remains competitive. The taste, the knowledge, the quality of the products — everything is there. And today we can rely on our sustainable agricultural sectors and the Made in France label. We must remain competitive to continue to serve both the French and European markets. This will involve freeing up capacity, improving industrial performance and engaging our employees," said Ludovic Barresi, CEO of Neuhauser.

The recovery plan therefore aims to conquer new volumes and optimise productivity, by making full use of the capacity offered by Neuhauser's industrial tools. This will be done by:

• Re-starting production at the second Folschviller site in Moselle, which has been closed since 2019. This should make it possible to achieve production levels of 300 kT (compared to 200 kT at present) within 5 years, using 80% of the existing industrial facilities. 
• Reorganising activities to address a growing market, via:
  • A bakery/pastry division dedicated to large volumes. In particular, this involves capitalising on the partnership with Lidl, a long-standing Neuhauser customer, by including a logic of sustainable development of the wheat sector. 
  • The advancement of sourcing in "Sowing Good Sense" sustainable chains to act as an accelerator for the agricultural and environmental transition and to contribute to creating value for both farmers and customers.
  • A bakery/viennoiserie/pastry division with higher added value that focuses on small batches. This mainly concerns food services, bakeries (artisan bakeries and chains) and "out-of-home catering". Neuhauser also wants to develop a raw pastry offer for artisan bakery and bakery chains. 
  • The prioritisation of international markets: USA and Europe (Italy, Germany and Portugal).

 

Atelier Sélection, a new reference brand for a food service industry that is committed to the food transition

Atelier Sélection offers a comprehensive range of breads, pastries and snack options for cafés, hotels and restaurants. As a brand, Atelier Sélection is committed to the food and agricultural transition, with wheat from "Sowing Good Sense" sustainable chains.